Country: Iraq

Group: Kurds

Date Finalized: 03/23/2021

Team: Vianney Mancilla (lead), Mahad Alam, Omer Carillo, Abigail Pentecost, Thomas Chia, Rayna Castillo, Natasha Chandra, Maya Shrikant, Hannah Goldman, Ann Thomas, Johanna McCombs, Colleen Claus

Content Warning: religious persecution; ethnocide; genocide

Approximate Time Period: 1970-present

There is ample evidence of the displacement of the Kurds in Iraq. We rated data quality as a 3 for the consistent, thorough, and reputable evidence found.

The Kurds are a heterogeneous group constituting 15-20% of the Iraqi population (Minority Rights, 2021). The Kurds have a decades-long history of forced displacement under the Iraqi government due to Arabization, and fleeing armed conflict, ethnocide, and genocide. First, in the 1970s, the Arabization campaign sought to forcibly evict approximately 250,000 people “of Iranian origin” (including the Kurds) from their homes (Human Rights Watch, 2004; Minority Rights, 2014). The Iraqi government planned to redistribute the Kurds’ oil-rich land to Arab settlers. Moreover, the Iraqi government wanted to rid Iraq of any “non-Arab races” and immediately had Arab families move in to prevent the return of the Kurds (Human Rights Watch, 2004). Second, from 1980-1988, under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi government launched the genocidal Anfal campaign to “suppress support for the Kurdish guerilla campaign” (Fawcett & Tanner, 2002). The campaign led to the destruction of approximately 4,000 to 5,000 Kurd villages and the killing of about 180,000 Kurds (Minority Rights, 2021). In order to avoid being killed, many Kurds fled or were forcibly displaced to neighboring countries like Iran (Human Rights Watch, 2004). The last instance of displacement occurred in 1991, during the Gulf War (Human Rights Watch, 2004; Minority Rights Group, 2021). The Iraqi state displaced approximately 1.5 million Kurds for retaliating and forming uprisings (Human Rights Watch, 2004; Minority Rights Group, 2021). Still, in the early 2000s, ethnic and religiously-targeted violence against the Kurds continues (Minority Rights Group, 2021).

Sources

  1. Fawcett, J., & Tanner, V. (2002). The Internally Displaced People of Iraq. The Brookings Institution, 61. Retrieved from  https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ iraqreport.pdf on March 23, 2021
  2. Human Rights Watch. (2004, August). Background: Forced displacement and Arabization of Northern Iraq. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/iraq0804/4.htm on March 23, 2021
  3. Minority Rights Group. (2021, February). Kurds. Retrieved from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/kurds-3/ on March 23, 2021
  4. Minority Rights Group. (2014, October). Twelver (Ithna’ashari) Shi’as. Retrieved from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/twelver-ithnaashari-shias/ on March 23, 2021